[F&ES 842/LAW 21758] / 2017-2018

Sustainability: Environment, Energy, and the Economy in the 21st Century

Credits: 2-3

This course aims to provide students with an opportunity to explore the interlocking set of challenges that stem from society’s desire for low-cost, clean energy that can support a vibrant economy and the simultaneous need to reduce pollution, address climate change, conserve natural resources, and address the other negative impacts of industrialization and economic growth. The seminar will review the data and analysis that flow from the Earth’s recent economic growth trajectory -- and the origins of sustainability thinking from Aldo Leopold to Rachel Carson to Gro Harlem Brundtland. It will then unpack the ecological, political, economic, legal, institutional, and historical elements of sustainability as an over-arching concept that might provide an alternative path forward. The 2015 version of this course is designed for law and environment school students interested in digging into various aspects of the “sustainability imperative” and in helping to develop an undergraduate sustainability course to be offered in 2016.